Russell Causley

Carole Packman, whose real name is Veronica, disappeared from her home shortly after visiting a solicitor supposedly seeking advice about a divorce from her husband Russell.

She apparently left a note for her daughter, then 16, saying she had left and wanted no further contact with the family.

Mrs Gillingham found her mother’s clothes, jewelry and Rolex watch still in the bedroom and her favorite red evening dress had been deliberately ripped.

Former electronics engineer Russell had moved his mistress, Patricia Causley, into their family home under the pretense that she needed somewhere to stay. He then changed his surname to the same as his lover’s by deed poll.

But 11 years later Russell Causley was jailed for two years after he tried to fake his own death in a boating accident in a million-pound insurance scam for which he was given a two-year prison sentence.

The fraud case prompted police to look into the disappearance of his wife again and Russell Causley was subsequently charged with her murder.

Russell Causley

The landmark trial at Winchester Crown Court in 1996 saw him become one of the first people in the UK ever to be convicted of murder without a body being found.

Causley’s conviction was quashed on appeal in 2003 but he was found guilty again at a retrial in 2004.

While in prison, Russell Causley confessed to three inmates that he had killed his wife. He is also said to have told one that he gassed her before dissolving her body in acid.

Russell Causley then made further admissions in August 2014, at which time Mrs Gillingham and her family were given hope that he would tell them everything, in exchange for being moved to a lower-category prison. But he remained silent.

She has now received a letter from the Probation Service saying: ‘I am writing to inform you that the above named offender (Russell Causley) is subject to a further parole review.’

It goes on to say that Causley’s probation officer will recommend he remain behind bars at HMP Littlehey in Cambridgeshire, but the possibility alone is frightening to think about.